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Most of the people I know use some kind password they can derive if they forget it. Like their password for Company A will be the city the company was founded, city the founder was born, and the month/day it was founded. The ones who have to change it because of policy pick something iterative, like the first line of a song, then the second, etc.

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Most of the people you know are well outside the normal then.

In my experience the average password consists of 1-3 words with some meaning to the user, sometimes either in 1337speak or followed by numbers/symbols if the password policy requires them.

I'm with you on this. I know very few people who generate passwords like that and most people I know use some simple "special word with special number" pattern. Often it's kids names, a random word they picked as a password years ago and have been reusing, and some part of their pin number.

In the past, I used a grid of random characters (a tabula recta) that I keep in my wallet, plus an algorithm for pulling passwords out of it. This system broke down when I was forced to change passwords on various sites.

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